It has been revealed how many Muslims live in Germany – they would already introduce Islamic religious education in schools

German education union demands nationwide introduction of Islamic religious education. The VBE German education and upbringing association is calling for the nationwide introduction of Islamic religious education in Germany – its president told the RND news agency.

“We are committed to ensuring that every believer can speak about their faith in school and receive relevant information about their own religion and other religions. Therefore we call on politicians to ensure such opportunities are provided in schools, to plan the staffing and financial conditions, and to implement them in the short term so that this becomes feasible at national level in the medium term,” Gerhard Brand, federal president of the VBE (Verband Bildung und Erziehung), told the RND (Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland) news agency.

According to the VBE, existing pilot programmes for Islamic religious classes must be evaluated, optimised where necessary and expanded in the short term. The regulation of Islamic religious classes varies between federal states; some states, such as North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria, already offer them.

Stefan Düll, president of the German Teachers’ Association (Deutscher Lehrerverband), sees school religious education as an opportunity to counter fundamentalist views.

“Religious classes held in public education by trained and state-examined teachers can counteract fundamentalist views passed on in the family or disseminated online by fundamentalist preachers,” he told RND.